Our kitchen is a weird little L-shaped joint... it's not perfect, but I have made my peace with it. In this picture, you can see something very special:

Up high, you can see our awesome tin mango that we got in the Florida Keys from a very kind Cuban man. We bought a bunch of cool things from him, and so, when I admired the mango he said "Mango free!" Except, we thought he was saying "Man Go Free"... and we thought he was getting pretty deep with us. When we finally figured it out, we accepted his gracious offer - but it still makes us chuckle to this day.

Here's the view from the back door... looking into the kitchen

And here's from the living room looking in. Oh! Hello, Dottie Bonkers!

Also, you can see my reflection in the hallway. :)

So, now you have a lay of the land.

I don't have a super-awesome kitchen full of anthropomorphized apples like Kittee does, but I do have some pretty cool magnets. I have little a magnet of my favorite Goya painting, some little yoga poses, many dog & cat magnets (duh!), a smiling cloud magnet, and a couple of cool magnets that I got in Ukraine. These magnets are currently busy holding up some important documents: photos of my nephew, a recipe, a list of crazy stuff in my pantry that needs to get put to use, my mom's campaign flyer (she is running for Santa Cruz City Council right now), and... most importantly...

This excellent little document that shows all the tricks that our doggies know. This is mostly for our housesitters, in case they want to spend some time doing tricks with the pups. Dottie is the smartest, and she loves doing tricks, but Stevie Wonder is pretty into it too. As for Snoopy... well, let's just say there's a reason we call him "Baby Dumb-Dumb."

Where the magic happens! When we moved in, we had a pretty crummy electric stove/oven. I made the most of it, but I was NOT sad when it finally bit the dust and needed to be replaced. I love my gas stove! Also, you can see my two most beloved cast iron pans that I use for just about everything. I don't even bother putting them away, they live on the stove top.

Here's "Where the Magic Happens, Part two." This is my super awesome gi-normous butcher block. When we bought our house, the previous owners were using this as a desk area to pay their bills. I was having none of that! I had this excellent prep area put in (and there's storage under it for my cookie sheets and such). Also - you can see some other special things in this picture:
- my Vitamix (xoxoxoxo)
- my toaster oven (true love forever)
- some canning jars on the counter for some upcoming projects
- my delightful Hindu alphabet chart that I got at a stationary store in India. I love that thing!

Two more things we had put in, right behind the butcher block: a big pantry and an overhead rack for hanging my pots and pans. Honestly, when we moved into this house, there was hardly a single drawer big enough to store a can of beans. It was quite maddening. I don't think the people who lived here before us ever cooked a single meal in this house! Where did they keep their pots!? Where did they keep their cans of beans?! I will never know.

Such a special drawer! My beloved knives, all snug in their little blade-protector pockets... with dreams of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

If you remember last year's MoFo theme (31 days of spices) - you won't be too surprised by my overwhelming spice zone. This is the counter top display...

Plus there are two more drawers FULL of more spices right below. Ha ha. I am a spice acquisition addict.

Kittee and I have discussed our great love of vintage pyrex before, but she has really outdone me. None the less, I have a few beauties in there. Plus I have some really excellent mugs that I quite delighted with. I think I even did a favorite mugs post in a previous mofo. Also, you will notice that we don't have more than 4 plates that match... We have a little hodgepodge of various sets.

Last but not least - any time I'm in the kitchen, there's at least one dog in the kitchen with me. The kitchen is where treats are officially handed out (not to mention where little scraps land on the floor by accident) - so they are all quite well behaved in the kitchen! :)

28 comments:

I am having chef knife and pots and pan organization envy. Fanatastic work space, with room for uber cute doggie companions and always always dig the illustrations, Amey. yay for special doggie tricks. Thank you for posting.

Wow, Amey! After reading Kittee's kitchen post, I was pretty intimidated at the idea of showing mine, because hers has so much personality and life. Your post did nothing to assuage that! Such fun!! :)

First of all, that mango story is hilarious! That's completely something I would have done. (I had a similar language issue in Italy when they wanted to know if I wanted a local wine. I thought they were asking if I wanted a low cal wine. Um, sure?)

That's so awesome that you've made an illustrated page of tricks for any dog sitters. You have some lucky & loved pups! Our cats are also quite fond of the kitchen, because that is treat central. Finally, I love your little drawing of the whole family! Adorable!!!

Poor snoopy. I am absolutely mesmerized by the cartoon dog trick sheet, that thing is genius. Vee does a pretty mean downward dog these days, but otherwise I think they all know the same stuff. And Vee comes about a well as yours do, while rolling in dead sea otters.

I love the tile on your floor! And your pantry! And how often do you oil your butcher block? Ours is already getting stains and stuff, but I oil it sorta regularly.

I love your kitchen! Your pot rack is awesome, my ceiling is only a foot above my partners head so we can't really have one, and I love your vintage pyrex. Your butchers block is super awesome too, why would you ever use that area as a desk? Crazy! Your dogs are such cuties too, I wanna come & snuggle with them!

i love your kitchen! ours is the same way- all of the drawers and cabinets are so small and narrow, there's no room for even HALF of my kitchen supplies or food. our utensils don't even fit in one of the two drawers. we went to ikea and got a large kitchen cart, island, and shelf with hooks to put my pans, strainers, oven glove, and apron. the rest of my stuff is in the basement on storage shelves. my cast iron skillet is also a permanent fixture on the stove. also, in our old apartment, we had an electric stove and i hated it with a passion. luckily, our new house has a gas one and i love it ;)

i think i need to do a kitchen tour just so i can clean and reorganize some.my kitchen is decent sized, but has been lately feeling smaller and smaller. i need to reorg and find a bigger kitchen if possible:) some of my pans and baing sheets are always int he oven. its a pain considering i use the oven everyday:)

It's really fun to see other people's kitchens, and both you and Kittee have colorful and unique ones. I have a pantry that's a lot like yours except it's all in one spot instead of two separate cabinets. I think every kitchen should have a dog trick sheet. :)

I'm really envious of your kitchen, you've got lots of space and it looks like there's probably lots of natural light too! And I have a pan that also doesn't have a cupboard home, it's way too awesome for that. :) That big cutting board is great, as is pretty much everything else over in that area. I love having a hodgepodge of bowls/plates/etc - not only is it good for food photos, but it keeps things interesting!

I love the kitchen and all that light! We have the same deal with being surrounded by dogs at all times when in the kitchen. It can be frustrating! "Get your head out of the over" your babies are all so cute.

Awesome kitchen--thank you so much for sharing. I feel exactly the same about my new gas stove--don't know how I survived with electric for so long. I do believe we have the same Ikea shelves. I am impressed with your knives in jackets --and also love the colorful bowls and Pyrex. My goodness, the last shot of the doggies is so damn precious.